Sphingomonas hankookensis sp. nov., isolated from wastewater

A Gram-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, ODN7^T, was isolated from a wastewater treatment plant in Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by use of a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain ODN7^T grew optimally at around pH 7.5 and 30 ⁶C and in the presence of 0-0.5% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ODN7^T fell within the cluster comprising species of the genus Sphingomonas, clustering with Sphingomonas panni C52^T, with which it shared highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (98.9 %). The chemotaxonomic properties of strain ODN7^T were consistent with those of the genus Sphingomonas. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-10, and the major fatty acids were C_18:1ω7c, C_16:1ω7c and/or iso-C_15:0 2-OH, and C_16:0. Major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The DNA G + C content of strain ODN7^T was 67.2 mol%. Strain ODN7^T exhibited levels of DNA-DNA relatedness of 15-32% to the type strains of phylogenetically related Sphingomonas species and could be differentiated from these species based on differences in phenotypic characteristics. On the basis of the data presented, strain ODN7^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas hankookensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ODN7^T (=KCTC 22579^T=CCUG 57509^T).